Tuesday, December 2, 2014

December Update

Another month and it's time for another update on my life and crochet...

I've had three craft fairs in the last 8 days! The first was the one in Portmagee and it was ok - not brilliant but I did pretty ok (looking back, I did about the same as I did there last year at their Christmas market so I can't grumble), next up was the one in Waterville Tech (which was a great success) and finally I had the one in Foilmore Community Centre on Sunday (which was kind of so-so -- my first time going there so hopefully next year will be better)

The one at the Tech is always my favourite out of the whole year -- it's ALL handmade items and all lovely lovely bits and pieces for sale. I took ever so slightly less money there than last year (I think it was about €8 less) but I'm not complaining at all. (I'm borrowing Susan Walsh's photo of the market so you can see - if you look very carefully you might make me out)

My crocodile wrist warmers seem to be a big hit in the
Tech Market - I know they make nice presents but people were also buying
them for themselves too, which is great. Last year I sold six pairs of
them there and was thrilled with myself - well this year I sold NINE
pairs of them there!! It's a good job that I enjoy making them :)

I'm still toeing the 'no wool buying' line but I know that won't last long when we are on holiday in Germany -- I'm so looking forward to getting some bits and pieces that I can't get easily over here; I loved all the Italian wools I brought back with me from Florence and Venice last year so I'm hoping for the same this holiday too.

Over in my Etsy shop I'm running a sale til the end of the week -- everything has 30% off. It's more than I can really afford to discount by but I'm hoping it will help bring in some extra money and I like to run a sale around about this time of year anyway as a kind of thank you to my customers and to give them a chance to get a bargain (if they want to). I was 30 sales away from 700 Etsy sales so I thought 30% would be a fun figure to discount by :)

Looking back over my blog entries from this time last year, I was hoping to make 500 sales on Etsy by the end of the year - and now 12 months later I'm hoping for 700! If I can keep up 200 sales a year over there I'll be thrilled but I'm happy enough to take things however they come.